Great things happen when you least expect it
Trip Start
May 16, 2010
1
26
31
Trip End
Jun 20, 2010
Garrevaques, Midi-Pyrénées, France
Thursday, June 10, 2010
It was an easy drive with some lovely country as we drove through the Languedoc region into the Mid Pyrenees on our way to San Sebastian tomorrow. Off the freeway we drove through some lovely countryside and small villages that were as lovely as the last we drove through, too cute to mention much more about. The land here is utilised more for crops including mainly wheat and some cattle although it is much more lush than wheat farming areas back home.
The Chateau turned out to be a 15th Century one with nice cornetto spires sticking up. The "Cornetto" feature is commonly used in this region to describe such Chateau. We were welcomed warmly by 15th generation owner Marie-Christine and her husband Claude who now run the Business after 30 years with Air France flying the Concorde among many others.
We had a lovely lunch where I was able to have one of my all time favourite dishes, cassoulet, which was all the more meaningful sonce it derives from this region near Toulouse where the famous Toulouse sausage features in the peasant style while bean stew along with confit duck. It was a rustic and amazing meal topped off with a very unpretentious creme brulee.
http://www.garrevaques.com/ChateauEn.htm
Well satisfied with lunch we headed to our room to settle in and get ready for our trip downstairs to the day spa once we were suitably dressed in our swimming gear and bathrobes with slippers. Kirra was to have some fancy sort of hydro bath ( looks like those dogie ones) but apparently it was really good followed by a massage. I was heading straight for the steam room where I sepnt the best part of the next hour sweating it out and dowsing myself periodically with the cold water from the bucket supplied. Awesome.
Kirra and I met again in the winter garden/ sun room which had deck chairs and although looked a little odd, was quite nice in the sun.
We decided to go for a drive around the area since we had an hour before it was my massage turn. We saw some lovely countryside and some other nice small towns including one which is officially listed as one of France's top 100 towns, it was OK. But we went to another one which was really nice and very, very old.
My massage was great and while half dozing in the middle of it I contemplated just how many massages should a person have in a week? I guess when on honeymoon, its as many as you can get.
We met up with 15th Generation owner Marie Christine and she mentioned that we were the only people eating dinner and when we insisted that we go out for dinner rather than her open the restaurant, she insisted, more strongly that we stay and we would have a great night even though she had more staff than guests. While pre-deciding what we would have with her including foie gras salad, followed by duck and then some kind of amazing french dessert, we decided we had better stay. It then became a moment where we went from being customers to being family as we were offered a tour of the private Chateau by 14th Generation madame, Marie-Christine's mother who showed us through the incredibly decorated interior including the damaged parts the Nazi officers damaged while they occupied the Chateau as one of their regional headquarters during the second world war.
Aperitifs ensued, followed by dinner, lots of photos and wine to the point where we realized that this day was quite fantastic and unexpected for us on a journey which has been one crazy story after the other.
Tomorrow Spain.
Comments
Great Honeymoon and well deserved too, enjoy :)
Chris, I absolutely love the way you describe everything...especially the food! Makes the reader feel like they are there (with out the actual massage and Visa bill) :-)